I recently bought a QNAP TR-002 external USB enclosure, and I installed two seagate ironwolf 12tb drives in it yesterday. I have it connected to my QNAP 1277 via USB-C in software mode (setup as Raid 1 within the 1277 interface).
It seems to work fine, but even when I'm not using it the disks sound like their heads are seeking pretty much every second or two, and the noise is unbearably annoying (the HDD lights flash on the unit as well). I have drives set to standby after 30 minutes but that makes zero difference. I have 8x 10TB WD Reds inside the 1277 and that is ultra quiet.
I've tried stopping a bunch of apps including the virtualization station with no change.